It matters because there is a large overlap between the people who need to pay more attention to science and religious people (by both his and my estimate). So

It matters because there is a large overlap between the people who need to pay more attention to science and religious people (by both his and my estimate). So needlessly dragging a religious figure completely works against what he's trying to accomplish. He brings up Ataturk; imagine how Ataturk's modernization plan would have worked if he went out of his way to rail against the prophet Mohammed's perceived science denial.